PBIS+Monthly+Assemblies

Each month the students at TMS have an assembly in recognition of their SOAR status. These assemblies are one of the elements of the Positive Behavioral Intervention Support (PBIS) program being implemented at TMS. SOAR, stands for Safety, Ownership, Accepting Responsibility and Respect; traits important for all members of our school community.

December 2012

SOARing Into A New School Year by Eliza B.

TMS’s SOAR activity for the month of October was outdoor recess. All students in SOAR standing could miss an elective, gym, or a UA cycle to play outdoors for 30 minutes during a sunny, 60-degree day. Some of the activities offered included soccer, lacrosse, baseball, a parachute game, and a nature walk on the cross-country trail through the woods surrounding the athletic field. If students did not want to play they could talk with their friends instead. Everyone at Tolland Middle School had a great time on field day!

Febuary PBIS- SOAR Student Assembly "Twisting Magic"Written By: Alix P. Scott Jameson came to our school for our February PBIS assembly. He started off with glow in the dark lanterns twirling like fire. He ended with making sand come out of water dry. In the middle of these two amazing acts he used the lanterns as strobe lights while twirling them. The next act he did was juggle basketballs. They were different colors and he didn’t mess up once. One of the pretty cool acts was he made an egg disappear in a bag and then he made it reappear. He even had a volunteer check the bag to make sure there wasn’t an egg in there. When Scott made it appear again he threw it into the bag and there wasn’t anything even in his hand! It was like he just made the egg appear out of nowhere! After that he made a ripped up newspaper go back into its regular form! Another amazing act he did was Scott blew up a purple balloon inside of a clear balloon. Then he put it in a box and taped the box right up. He then squeezed his fingers together and the balloon popped! The coolest act Scott did was make a water mixture and put sand into it. After mixing the sand up he took it out and it was dry! This was a pretty cool assembly and we hope Scott will bring joy to many others during his career.

January PBIS- SOAR Student Assembly "Bending Gravity" Written By: Alix P.

Eric Girardi, a TMS alumni, came to our school to show us his show of "Bending Gravity". It was for our January PBIS monthly assembly. He did many tricks for us including; top spinning, juggling swords that were somewhat sharp, yo-yo tricks, sticks (rubber stick you twirl with smaller rubber sticks), and much, much more. Eric told us he is ranked as one of the top 100 yo-yo entertainers in the world! Whenever we liked a trick, we applauded. Eric was inspired to learn really cool illusions when he went to a circus show. He got into all types of illusions they were performing. That’s when he started to practice all of them. Eric was always into yo-yoing. He said he would practice for six hours a day sometimes. My favorite part of Eric's performance was when he did Chinese yo-yoing. He would catch the yo-yo behind his back and even on top of his head. We all enjoyed Eric and hope he can come back soon.

December PBIS - SOAR Student AssemblySnakes Are At It Again! Written By: Alix P. ==== Presenter Brian came to our school and showed us an abundant amount of non-venomous snakes. He gave us an educational presentation about these reptiles. He did have a legless lizard. He told us the difference between a legless lizard and a snake. To tell a legless lizard and snake apart you look to see if there is holes in its side. If there is, it is a legless lizard. Also, legless lizards can blink. ==== ==== Snakes have a permanent scale over their eyes so they can’t blink. We learned that there are three pythons that make up the top four of biggest snakes in the world. Two of these pythons were in the biggest mass category. Brian taught us how to tell a Milk and Coral snake apart. If red is touching black, you are okay Jack. If black is touching yellow it can kill a fellow. This rhyme only works in the United States because outside of the U.S. there are many colors of Coral snakes. ==== ==== We also learned about the Corn snake. The purpose of this snake is to eat all the mice that try to eat the farmer’s corn. Brian called this type of snake a farmer’s best friend. This snake also gets its name from eating the mice that try to eat the farmer’s corn. The pattern on this snake’s belly looks like Indian corn which also gives this snake its name. ==== ==== The last snake we saw was the Black Rat snake. When it is born it takes one year to grow its black scales. The color it is stuck with until then is gray. This snake is a carnivore like any other snake. Can you guess what it eats? MICE!!!! I thought this was a big surprise. I thought it would eat rat. ====